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Economic prospects across Canada are starting to turn around thanks to a
variety of aligning factors. Consumer and business confidence is being
restored thanks to monetary and fiscal stimulus, improved financial
market conditions, firmer commodity prices, and strengthening emerging
market demand. Geographically, Central Canada’s manufacturing sector
should gradually improve over the coming year thanks to stabilizing
demand; In Quebec, losses are being mitigated thanks to cost-cutting
measures and a wide product mix, production is starting to grind;
Western Canada sees Manitoba’s steady diverse
economy and Saskatchewan’s resilient resource to lead growth this
year and next; Alberta’s economic growth will steadily depend on the
recent resurgent commodity prices; and the British Columbia immense
lumber industry expects growth now the U.S. housing market appears to have
bottomed. This according to Scotia Economics’ latest Provincial Trends
report, which also forecasts British Columbia’s economy to rebound 2.7%;
Alberta by 2.8%; Saskatchewan to grow 0.6%; Manitoba by 2.5%; Ontario to
rebound 2.2%; Quebec to expand 2.4%; New Brunswick to grow 2.4%; Nova
Scotia by 2.5%; Prince Edward Island by 1.9%; and Newfoundland/Labrador
to grow 2.4%.

CA-based billing service Zuora has hired Elizabeth Tse, previously with
eBay, as its new VP of Customer Operations.
Tse will manage the Professional Services Group, as well as Customer
Support and Care. She will own all customer
operations post-sales, including managing Zuoraâs entire portfolio of
service offerings required to ensure the success of the companyâs
customers.
Tse will manage the Professional Services Group,
as well as Customer Support and Care. She will own all customer
operations post-sales, including managing Zuoraâs entire portfolio of
service offerings required to ensure the success of the companyâs
customers. Previously,
Tse worked as VP, Global Billing, Payments &
Collections, at eBay, where she was responsible for overseeing worldwide
billing operations for the worldâs largest online marketplace. Tse held
similar executive level positions with Providian Financial (now Chase)
where she was Senior Vice President of New Product Development and
American Express where she was Marketing Manager.

VocaLink international payment specialists now use Precise’s Transaction
Performance Management (TPM) solution, “Precise 8.5,” on its Java-based
bank payments system. VocaLink processes over nine billion payments a
year, 15% of European payments and is anticipating a 10% increase in
transaction volume in 2009 with its continental expansion. VocaLink uses
“Precise 8.5” to proactively look for transaction issues, including
extended processing time for security certificates. Precise was
established over 18 years ago to help companies prevent application
performance problems with its TPM solutions, offering transaction
transparency, fastest time-to-repair and problem prevention to over
1,500 customers worldwide. VocaLink transaction services processes
domestic and international automated payments of up to 90 million daily
and over half a billion monthly.

Cashless payment solution provider USA Technologies and Visa will expand
their agreement to deploy another 2,500 “ePort” payment terminals.
This will bring the total to 4,000 terminals that are expected to be
installed in markets nationwide.
The G8 ePort terminals were especially designed to accept Visa payWave,
a new payment feature that allows consumers to simply wave their Visa
card in front of the ePort terminal to pay for their vended purchase. A
signature is not required for purchases under $25, and consumers retain
control of the card during the transaction, reducing the risk of fraud.
USA Technologies is a provider of cashless payment solutions to the
vending, kiosk, online laundry and self-serve point of sale markets,
with nearly 50,000 devices already in service.

RDM Corporation electronic commerce and payment processing posted
payment processing revenues of $2.5 million for its fiscal Q3/09 ended
June 30, 2009, compared to the year-ago figure of $1.7 million. The RDM
transaction volumes averaged 3.8 million items per week during the
quarter, compared to 2.8 million items per week during the year ago
period and 3.6 million items per week during its fiscal Q2/09. Payment
Processing Services segment revenues increased by $0.8 million by 48%
from the year ago period to $2.5 million while the Electronic Payments
Solutions segment and the Quality Assurance segment, which represented a
combined 8% of total revenues in the third quarter, generated revenues
of $180,000 and $322,000, respectively, compared to $554,000 and
$331,000, respectively, in the year ago period. Additional data show the
organization’s end user locations grew from 17,000 to 17,800 during the
quarter; added one additional bank distributor; gross profit was $2.5
million or 42% of revenues, compared to $1.8 million and 34% during the
year ago period, respectively; and net earnings of $175,000 compared to
a net loss of $298,000 during the year ago period.

Visa reported that second calendar quarter adjusted net income,
excluding its recent sale of VisaNet do Brasil, increased 11% to $507
million and net operating revenue increased 2% to $1.6 billion, compared
to the same quarter in 2008. Sequentially, net operating revenue was
flat and adjusted net income was down 8%. However, global transaction
growth for the quarter ended June 30th picked up to an annual rate of
8%, compared to 6% in the prior quarter and 13% in the year ago quarter.
For the second calendar quarter there were 10.3 billion transactions
processed via VisaNet. Visa released first calendar quarter performance
data which showed that payments volume growth, on a nominal basis, was a
negative 5% over the prior year at $617 billion; total volume, on a
nominal basis and inclusive of cash volume, was $969 billion, a 7%
decline over the prior year; and the total cards carrying the Visa
brands rose 6% worldwide over the prior year to over 1.7 billion. In the
U.S. gross dollar volume for Visa credit programs for the quarter ending
March 31st declined 15.5% to $195 billion while debit program GDV rose
5.8% to $272 billion. Visa predicts annual net revenue growth of high
single digits in 2009 and at the lower end of the 11% to 15% range in
2010. For complete details on Visa’s latest performance visit CardData
(www.carddata.com).

eFuture Information Technology China-based retail software and services
has inked strategic agreements with Microsoft Corporation to provide a
standardized POS-ERP system. Targeting retailers across China, the new
system will integrate Microsoft Windows “Embedded POSReady 2009” into
eFuture’s POS-ERP “Store Operation System” and leverage the latter’s
nationwide retail customer base. This will pair the POS-ERP “Store
Operation System” with the Microsoft’s operating systems for a low-cost,
secured data platform with service-oriented architecture. The Microsoft
Windows “Embedded POSReady 2009” operating system is equipped with
flexible and customizable features for customer hardware requirements
providing the ability to connect to peripherals and servers on a broad
range of applications. eFuture Information Technology provides its
software and services to the rapidly growing China retail sector and
employs more than 600 employees in 20 branch offices across the country.

Euronet reported that second quarter revenues declined 5.8% to $248.6 million. However, net income jumped to $15.6 million, compared to net income of $5.9 million for the second quarter 2008. The EFT Processing segment posted revenues of $45.6 million, compared to $52.4 million for 2Q/08. Transactions of 179.3 million, compared to 168.6 million for the year ago quarter. The EFT Processing Segment ended the second quarter with 9,336 ATMs. The Prepaid Processing segment reported revenues of $145.2 million, compared to $152.6 million for the second quarter of last year. Transactions were 194.2 million, compared to 169.5 million for 2Q/08. The PP segment processes electronic POS prepaid transactions at approximately 470,000 POS terminals across approximately 232,000 retailer locations in Europe, Asia-Pacific, North America and the Middle East. The Money Transfer unit reported revenues of $57.8 million, compared to $59.5 million for the second quarter 2008. Transfer transactions were 4.5 million, compared to 4.3 million for the second quarter 2008. For complete details on Euronet’s second quarter performance visit CardData (www.carddata.com).

Euronet reported that second quarter revenues declined 5.8% to $248.6 million. However, net income jumped to $15.6 million, compared to net income of $5.9 million for the second quarter 2008. The EFT Processing segment posted revenues of $45.6 million, compared to $52.4 million for 2Q/08. Transactions of 179.3 million, compared to 168.6 million for the year ago quarter. The EFT Processing Segment ended the second quarter with 9,336 ATMs. The Prepaid Processing segment reported revenues of $145.2 million, compared to $152.6 million for the second quarter of last year. Transactions were 194.2 million, compared to 169.5 million for 2Q/08. The PP segment processes electronic POS prepaid transactions at approximately 470,000 POS terminals across approximately 232,000 retailer locations in Europe, Asia-Pacific, North America and the Middle East. The Money Transfer unit reported revenues of $57.8 million, compared to $59.5 million for the second quarter 2008. Transfer transactions were 4.5 million, compared to 4.3 million for the second quarter 2008. For complete details on Euronet’s second quarter performance visit CardData (www.carddata.com).

Fidelity National Information Services posted a 4% decline in revenue to $834.8 million for 2Q/09. Net income declined 17.7% to $59.2 million for the second quarter, compared to one-year ago. The Company noted that excluding the unfavorable impact of foreign currency revenue declined only 0.4%. Payment Solutions revenue declined 0.9% to $380.0 million as growth in debit was offset by declines in item processing, credit card and retail check services. Financial Solutions revenue declined 1.4% to $277.0 million as increased demand for risk management and technology outsourcing services was offset by lower software license and professional services revenue. International revenue declined 13.7% to $178.4 million in U.S. dollars due to the strengthening of the U.S. dollar. However international revenue increased 1.4% in constant currency, driven by 5.1% growth in payments. FIS is currently in the process of acquiring Metavante Technologies and expects to complete the transaction in the fourth quarter. For complete details on FIS’ second quarter performance visit CardData (www.carddata.com).

NEOVIA Financial global online payments business has introduced its
“NETELLER” Money Transfer service. Allowing users to send and receive
money instantly around the world securely through a user-friendly
interface, “NETELLER” is intent on offering consumers a cost effective
remittance service. The sender pays a 1% transfer fee of no more than
$10 USD while the receiver is incurred no transfer fees. The NEOVIA
service allows people to transfer funds in 20 different currencies to
over 180 countries, with automatic conversion, for a wide variety of
deposit options. Deposit options include credit/debit card, bank
transfer, direct e-Banking, Giropay, iDEAL, and Ukash. Receivers, whom
must hold their own NETELLER account, can withdraw the remittance
through bank transfers, cheques, bank wires or through the “Net +” card.
The NETELLER account is free and can be used to send money to anyone
with an email address.